Trend: The Future of Sports? All Interaction, All The Time!

Last week, I appeared in USA Today, in an article about the future of sports.

They interviewed me just after my keynote on the main stage at the massive PGA Merchandise Show, and so there is an obvious slant towards golf. My quote and obserations are below.

This isn’t the first time I’ve talked about this aspect of the future of sport and fitness. I’ve done high profile keynotes for the Sporting & Fitness Industry Association CEO Summit; over 4,000 people at the National Recreation and Parks Association annual meeting, and two talks for the PGA of America!

You can read the full USA Today article In the future you’ll probably be able to pitch to Babe Ruth when you aren’t watching eSports here.

Jim Carroll
Futurist, trends and innovation expert

*Change will happen at Silicon Valley’s pace, not that of the NFL or NBA or any other league or sanctioning body. Technology companies will become the driving force behind sports innovation.

*Having just spoken to a PGA gathering, Carroll outlined a future in which any foursome will retreat to the clubhouse for post-round brews and … film breakdown. Within a few years, golfers will be able to post HD video to social media of their great shots, taken from cameras on the course and in the golf carts. They’ll also get detailed information about every shot they took; info will be gathered from the club, the ball, wearables and those cameras.

*The in-stadium (or arena) experience will be similar. Every object used in the game will soon be able to send information to a computer, so fans will be inundated with precise data about the speed of a baseball bat, the arc of a basketball shot and everything else.

Is this a bad thing? Is it a good thing? It’s easy to argue it both ways.

For example, after my PGA keynote, one traditional golfer who runs a site/blog known as “Wee Egg Mon” wrote Wee Egg Mon about how bothered he was by my talk.

It’s a good read, but he does make this observation: “Everything is going to change? Really? I hope not. I rather like the game the way it is.”

That’s the funny thing about the future. Sometimes it happens, and Ogden Nash captured the sentiment perfectly when he observed that for some folks, “progress is great but it’s gone on way too long.”

I doubt that the world of sports & fitness will look anything in 2025 will look anything like it does today, beyond the basics. Is that a bad thing? A good thing? Like I said, I have no idea. I just know it will happen.